To Live A Dream
by SueRyanna
Summary: Annabeth Jane Rosalind Swiftfield would give up anything to live her dream to see the outer lands. Fleeing on the night before she was to marry a man she did not love, she was unexpectedly posted to the scouting legions' quarters as a house keeper. Will there be more than just to live a dream especially after she meets Corporal Rivaille for the first time?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I do not own the characters of AOT (well, except for my OC) BTW, English is not my native language, thus, please pardon my mistakes. If any of you would like to help me edit, please tell me and I am ever willing to permit you to do so.**_  
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**P/S: I would like to present character nationalities in this story. Therefore, Rivaille is French (according to a random info I got on the net) and **** my OC is British. The setting is somewhat Victorian, so ladies, get ready for beautiful puffy dresses none of us could ever own xD**

**P/S/S: Do not worry about heights. My OC is only 158 cm.**

_Knock. Knock._

"Come in"

Now, I did not need to see, nor did I have to make a guess even if I could call it lucky. As years passed, it was more of routine. A sickening routine that is.

"Another bouquet of flowers, Helen?"

"Yes, milady. But, also, with a little gift. Would you care to take a look, milady?"

I looked up from the book I was reading and gestured for Helen to come forward. The frail girl, in her late adolescence looked like she could topple by the weight of the beast of a bouquet of roses she struggled to hold.

"Helen, your arm will swell that way. Just drop those roses on the floor. I'll get Joseph to pick them up later." I said. _Poor girl_, I thought. _She could still be in school_.

"Yes, milady."

"Say..is that the gift?" I asked, pointing to the blue, velvet – clothed box that laid next to her as she carefully placed a few stray roses back into the bouquet.

She looked up surprised, and then glanced to the box. "Oh, yes it is, milady. I'll…"

"It's alright. I'll have a look at it myself." I said, and kneeled beside her to pick up the box. I ran my fingers over the velvet material, before opening the box and a sparkling blue diamond necklace met my gaze.

_It's beautiful_, I thought, _but I have more than I had even needed_.

"Helen, is there any significance to why this man had given me a blue diamond necklace?"

Helen stopped for a moment and looked me in the eyes. She smiled. "Why milady…your eyes. This man is trying to compliment your eyes."

Hearing her words made me smile in return. "I thought 'they were as blue as the sky' as many would say."

"Certainly they are, milady, but I do not think it is likely possible to grab the sky and fold it to fit into a box. So, he gave you a blue diamond necklace instead. To be frank milady, your eyes do sparkle like that beautiful diamond." she said.

I picked up the necklace by its chain and held it closer so I could take a better look at it. "Yes, beautiful indeed." then I placed it against Helen's chest just below her ruffled collar. "But breath - taking if it was on you. Take it."

Her eyes widened with shock. "I cannot, Milady. It is for you."

"That I do not care. Now, take it." I said.

"B-but Lady Odella will be very displeased if she finds out."

"No she won't." I said stubbornly and placed the necklace into the front pocket of her uniform. "It is your choice to wear it in discrete or hide it somewhere safe. If you have the need to send extra money to your village you could even sell it."

"I would not, milady. I would not have something I could not afford even I lived a thousand years in exchange with money. Besides, my mother would be very pleased if I had shown it to her. She had never seen a decent piece of jewelry in her lifetime."

It was my turn to feel surprised. "Then…what was presented on her wedding?"

Helen smiled. "In my village, women do not get to choose whom to marry. It is the man who chooses her. However, to win her hand is not easy. He will have to prove of his worth by venturing even to ends of the walls in search for something valuable to present as a dowry. It could be anything, even flowers." she tucked the last rose into place before resuming her story. "My father chose to present flowers to my mother. However, unlike other men who only searched behind the safeguard of the walls, my father went to the outer lands."

"How is that possible? Citizens are forbidden to even speak a word of the outer lands."

"That was…because my father was in the scouting legion at that time."

_Amazing.._.

"Whilst on a mission, my father had also made an effort to search for the rarest flowers. Of course, he was nearly killed by a titan, but it paid off when he finally found what he was looking for. He said that it was somehow that titan had actually led him there." she said. "So my father returned with a broken arm, a large bouquet of beautiful flowers that no one knew of its name until this very day and with the honour of a brave man."

"But did your father not realize that he was putting his life at a great bargain when he had actually come up with the idea?"

"He couldn't calculate his chances of survival since the outcomes are unpredictable at certain times, by he knew if something went wrong he might not just make it through. But then he thought 'I am in love'."

I cocked an eyebrow. "And how did that aid him?"

"Love, Milady, is strength. When this feeling is for a person, strength turns into power. When you love somebody, you will have the strength and power to overcome anything. Even fear. It was because my father was deeply in love; he fought all his fears because he knew he couldn't die just yet, after he could claim the woman he loved as his."

"Pardon me Helen, but I still do not understand how love makes you feel so strong." I said.

"You will, Milady, when you are in love."

There was a short moment of silence. Then, Helen got up to her feet.

"I'm sorry, Milady, but I have some chores left unattended. May I be excused?"

"Certainly. Thank you for sharing your story ."

"You're welcome, Milady." she gave a polite bow before walking out of the room and closing the door gently.

I picked up the empty velvet box and tossed it into the waste paper basket by the end of the leg of my study desk. I approached my large bedroom window and observed the beautiful scenery of the well-tended garden that stretched before my eyes. At the same time, I recalled Helen's story with every single detail arranged one after another until it came to her last words.

_You will, Milady, when you are in love._

My window was a little misty from the cool morning weather. I took my finger and traced a little heart. For a moment, I just stared at it.

Will I ever fall in love?

**A/N: It's a lil' crappy, I know 'cos I'm not feeling well. I wrote this just 'cos I couldn't contain my ideas anymore. Next chapter will up soon and I promise that it'd be much better. So please review! (and kindly avoid harsh comments. I'm a newbie. Have mercy)**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: As promised, the second chapter is finally up for reads! Thank you for the reviews and do continue to comment. I'd love to read them and I'd definitely try everything in my power to improve. To make up for my personal disappointment in the first chapter, I've taken extra measures in writing the second one. For readers from the US if you happen to spot certain words which are spelled differently, please bear in mind that my county follows the British standards, so, I am practically using British English. Anyways, happy reading!**

**P.S: The _Italic _dialogues are the OC's flashbacks.**

It was past midnight and I was certainly the only one wide awake in the household, if I need not mention the guards stationed at the font gates and the rear of the mansion. Lord of the Heavens knew if they were up to their patrols.

Though the wee hours of the night had commanded many to succumb to a deep slumber, however, my eyes were still as bright as the lamp that has undoubtedly proved much of its loyalty for years whenever I was up to something by nightfall ever since I was ten years old.

When other girls would look outside her window and dream the arrival of her handsome prince on a magnificent white horse, waiting for true love's kiss just like the fables, I would look out the window with a determination to see the outer lands just like in the books Uncle Anderson had shown me.

Uncle Anderson was a man at that time in his late thirties who laughed at me when he noticed just how much I tried to peek into the book he was reading while we were sharing the same bench in Belle Park.

_'Oh poor you. Here. You can take a look.' _he said as he lowered the heavy book onto my little lap.

I only blinked at him and my eyes averted to the illustrations that had piqued my interest. Being only a ten – year – old, I knew nothing more than what I had been taught by my personal tutor. I solved mathematical equations accurately in my head, I could explain the process of photosynthesis, I presented the history of Wall Rose, Wall Maria and Wall Sina in the presence of his Majesty once, and I spoke French, Latin and Spanish like a native language.

But when I laid my eyes upon the sketches in the book, I felt like an empty cup of tea. I desperately needed to be filled so much even until I must overflow.

I pointed to the picture. _'What is this?'_

_'It is an ocean.'_

_ 'What is an ocean?'_

_ 'It is a vast amount of water supporting the lives of creatures like fish and mammals.'_

_ 'What is the ocean like?'_

_ 'Why, it is deep of course and salty.'_

_ 'Why is salty?'_

He laughed. _'Oh my, you are as curious as cat, are you not? May I know your name young one?'_

I did not take my eyes off the page. _'Annabeth Jane Rosalind'_

_'Annabeth? What a lovely name. Is your father not Sir Harold Swiftfield?'_

_'Yes, he is.'_ I replied. I did not know why was it important that every citizen should know who my father was back then. I did not really grasp the purpose of being born a blue blood. My English teacher would regard me as 'born with a silver spoon in her mouth.' Though born rich, born with the beauty of a hundred fair maidens, I felt indifferent with the other girls who were not of my lineage or the most of my privilege.

But this man's question…was simply a question.

_ 'My name is Anderson Halloway. Call me Uncle Anderson.'_ then he brought out his hand to me. _'Friends, Annabeth?'_

At first, I had only stared at him. Then I opened my mouth to speak. _'Will you promise to teach me everything in this book?'_

He smiled. _'I promise.'_

There was something comforting in that smile which made me return it with a childish beam of my own. I place my little hand into his large one and he shook it gently.

_'Friends.'_ I said.

I tightened a few screws before lifting my latest and improved invention in front of my very own eyes. I called it the 'Eagle Claw'. My conscience laughed hysterically at my bad choice of names for my inventions, but it was not exactly an eagle's claw of some sort. Well, not literally.

It was just merely a belt. What distinguished this belt from the other belts worn by men or women on a daily basis that this was not an item of style and fashion. It was a little bulky and fairly unattractive indeed, but that was its sole purpose. The Eagle Claw was built for maximum efficiency in mobility and defense. To define mobility, I simply had intended a convenience to move about in "mid – air".

The Eagle Claw was made to be a _weapon._

Dumb – stricken? Oh do not be. With my fair knowledge in engineering physics and after spending 5 years studying the military's very own invention, the '3D maneuvering gear' creating the Eagle Claw was a piece of cake.

My approach in this invention differed nearly half the percentage of that the idea used in the construction of the 3D maneuvering gear. I have replaced ordinary ropes with the ones made of alloy which was a lot more difficult to snap. Once a person has this belt attached to their waist, a sudden strange sensation will rush through every vein in their system within a pica second or less before they feel as one with this belt, like an additional functional limb.

This gear was undependable on gas and would self – activate as it corresponds to the signals produced and transmitted by the brain to the spinal cord. That made it efficient. In a way, it also proved to be quite a danger. Therefore, the only person who could handle this was me as it would only respond to my brain signals.

I admired my creation – only to be interrupted by the sounds of horse hooves tapping against the road and the carriage wheels rotating. The sounds stopped abruptly in front of the gates.

It could only mean that Mother and Father were home from visiting their relatives from another line of aristocrats.

Panicked, I scrambled to put all my work papers into a fairly neat pile and together with the belt, I had them hidden in a box under my bed. Then, I made a quick trip to my desk again to turn off the lamp before jumping on to the bed and sinking beneath the thick covers.

Finally, I took a really deep breath and exhaled with relief.

Staying up late was not the only reason for my worked up actions, but I feared my life for the unwanted discovery of the Eagle Claw, and of all people, by my own parents.

For 15 years, I had been a very disobedient daughter. I read forbidden books, I took up sword fighting instead of sewing and at the age of twenty – four, I forged a certificate of graduation in political science when truthfully, I had studied mechanical engineering. And now, at twenty – five, when it made sense that most women of my age would be looking forward to a perfect husband and settling down, my brain would try formulating several ways to get over the walls and into the unknown.

If I could foresee that my actions may drive my parents up the wall, if they only knew, but them learning my desires to the outer lands would cause if not one, but both their lives of a sudden heart failure and endless disappointment in their only heiress.

And I was not ready to risk such a thing. But if I was not the rebel I made myself to be, nobody would understand. Definitely they would be among the other people who would not.

"Except Uncle Anderson." I murmured against the covers.

I stayed awake for a moment or two until I realized just how thick and dark the night was like the ink of my fountain pen. Eventually, I fell asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: finally, i get to meet u guys again (well not literarily) i am sooooo sorry for making all of you wait. But anyway, here's the third chapter. I would love to take this opportunity to thank my very kind and very faithful reader, Queen of Narnia49 for helping me edit this piece. Thank you so much! And lastly, as a reminder, i will be making very little or no progress at all probably until the last week of november or the first week of december due to a very important event that can't be avoided. Please stay with me and i promise you more chapters to come. Thank you and enjoy reading.**

A ray of sunlight that managed to peek through a small gap carelessly left in the heavy maroon curtains and woke me up from my dreamless sleep. I sat up slowly and closed my eyes for a moment or two before regaining full consciousness.

Lightly on my feet, I made my way to the bathroom to brush my teeth and wash off the remaining sleepiness from my face. My only items of cleansing were fresh rose water and the best quality of honey which I had them mixed onto my palm before spreading all over my face.

I hummed a little tune as I gently massaged my face. These remedies worked well on me for years. They were tricks taught by my mother, who on the other hand had been taught by my grandmother and the tradition traveled a long journey back to where it had been first practiced by the ancestors of my mother's bloodline.

My mother, Odella Anne Dorothy came from a very old and very wealthy family known as the Harrisons. Besides having a great influence in the agricultural industry, which had them owning several large estates, the Harrisons' line of females were often admired by men and envied by many women for their natural beauty.

After splashing my face clean with the frigid water, I reached for a soft cloth by the side of the washstand. As soon as I have gently wiped my face, I took a glance in the mirror and I saw a person. My reflection.

She looked back at me with eyes that could not cleverly decide if they wanted to be green or blue. Her white night gown hung loosely over her petite frame. She was not very tall, but in her heart, she had so much pride as she did not see it as a flaw. The girl may not have brushed her hair this morning, still, her strawberry blonde hair streamed down in unison like a calm river all the way to her hips.

She was the girl who made every young man in the district irrational and madly in love. Sadly, it was only against her will.

I reached out to touch her. I wanted to tell her to always be strong. The girl mimicked my actions simultaneously. Our hands met as I placed my palm flat against the mirror. That girl was Annabeth. I was Annabeth and I would always be strong for my sake. I believed that everybody had a purpose in life, a valid reason to live. I knew I had my purpose too. It was a very strong feeling like an intuition. But it was still an incomplete puzzle, almost as if I was trying to guess an unfamiliar silhouette in the fog. I just did not know what it was.

Only time had the answer hidden in its many folds. It could be in the next ten years. Maybe tomorrow. Since life was full of surprises, maybe even today.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

I was alarmed by the sudden knocks on my bedroom door and the cloth I had been grasping fell into the basin of impure water.

I gasped, looking down to the basin. "Oh dear."

"Is everything alright, sweetheart?" said the voice of my mother speaking in her familiar posh accent.

I looked up to meet her soft green eyes. "Oh, mother, yes, everything is fine."

She smiled with much enough sweetness and devotion to successfully subtract twenty years off her age. It was the smile I carbon – copied. Well, it definitely supported the hypothesis that an apple would never fall far from the tree. "Come here." she said.

"Yes, mother." I obeyed and abandoned the washstand, sauntering smoothly in her direction. She was a typical bound – to – customs noble lady. From my style of walking to the way I held my fork and spoon were all taken into her account.

I stood close enough for her to gaze into my eyes and reached out a hand to push the little stray fringes of hair from my face. I may be a twenty – five – year – old woman, but just by standing next to her, I looked barely twelve. Once, my late superstitious grandmother used to think that my lack in height was due to the curse that had been laid upon one of the Harrison females on the upper end of the family tree. Legend has it that one of my ancestors had angered a leprechaun by mocking his short stature. Therefore, she was cursed to have one of the next females of her blood to have the gracefulness in her height taken away and to almost resemble a leprechaun as a price of her mockery.

But, that was far before the birth of science and logical explanation. Ever since a young age, I was not very fond of dairy goods, particularly milk though it was clear that it was crucial for my growth. Thus, I did not shoot up in height after I had turned fifteen. However, in the eyes of both my parents, I was still their perfect Angel from the seventh Heaven.

"How is my lovely daughter this morning?" she asked as she combed strands of my hair with her long elegant fingers.

I smiled. "I am fine thank you, mother. Besides, I am about to clean up and get dressed to visit the orphanage. I dearly missed those children."

Mother gave a thoughtful look. "Oh…yes. Which reminds me, it has been a fortnight has it not? Yes, I do miss those children too. Such little darlings they are."

"Would you like to come along with me?"

"I would love to, darling, but I am afraid not today. The wife of Sir John Ford had invited over to her house this morning to take a look at a few selected dresses sewn by her very faithful tailor of thirty years. If I am lucky, I would be able to pick out one for you if it is not too big."

The moment she said she was not going to follow, I had a sudden thought.

"When will you be leaving, mother?"

"Well…" my mother glanced to the clock that rested on my bedside table. "About now. I must not be late. Send my regards to the children and I do have something important to remind you about."

I was a little surprised. "What is it, mother?"

"I want you to be home by evening, dear. We will be having important guests arriving for dinner tonight. I have requested for Helen to prepare very special meals. Be home early and groom yourself very well for tonight." she said.

"Do I not always groom myself well, mother?"

"My dear, if you put some decoration on a lovely cake, would it not be more presentable and inviting? Oh my, I have to leave now. Remember what I have told you." she said and gave a light kiss on my cheek. "I love you. Toodles, darling."

She walked out of my room and closed the door, leaving a light scent of jasmine lingering in the air. Jasmines had always been my favourite flowers.

Then, I was alone again.

"Toodles."


End file.
